Monday, 6 January 2014

The Giants Causeway

THE LEGEND

Finn McCool (Fionn mac
Cumhail) an Irish Giant lived on an Antrim headland
and, one day when going about his daily business, a Scottish Giant named Fingal
began to shout insults and hurl abuse from across the channel. In anger Finn lifted a clod of earth and threw it at the giant as
a challenge, The earth landed in the sea. Fingal
retaliated with a rock thrown back at Finn and shouted that Finn was lucky that
he wasn't a strong swimmer or he would have made sure he could never fight
again. Finn was enraged and began lifting huge clumps of earth from the shore,
throwing them so as to make a pathway for the Scottish giant to come and face
him. However, by the time he finished making the crossing he had not slept for a
week, and so instead devised a cunning plan to fool the Scot.

Finn disguised himself as a baby in a cot and
when his adversary crossed the causeway & came to face him, Finn's wife told the Giant that Finn was
away but said quietly; "Shhh now, don't wake the baby". The Scottish giant became
apprehensive, for if the son was so huge, what size would the father be?
In his haste to escape, Fingal sped back along the
causeway Finn had built, tearing it up as he went to prevent Finn from following him. He is said to have fled to a
cave on Staffa which is to this day named 'Fingal's Cave'.

Other versions of the legend include Finn
throwing a huge piece of earth which then became the Isle Of Manand
the hole which it left behind became Lough Neagh.

THE BORING REALITY

Since the 18th century The Giant's
Causeway has often been described as 'The Eighth Wonder Of The World' and once
you have visited the site you will quickly see why.

The area consists of an estimated
40,000 hexagonal basalt columns, which were formed during a volcanic eruption 60
million years ago.

Strangely, the Causeway is thought to
have lain undiscovered by the outside world until a visit in 1692 from the
Bishop Of Derry (Londonderry). The Bishop alerted authorities in Dublin, who
then notified learned circles in London. Many papers were produced and many
theories on how it had been formed were put forward.

Many of these theories were deeply
rooted in science and although very valid, they make a very boring read. My
favourite explanation of how the Giant's Causeway came to be, lies in the legend
of Finn McCool.

After a three hour drive, we arrived in Bushmills.

Our brilliant B&B, Cottesmore. Everything about this place was spot on. Rae and John made us very welcome and comfortable for our stay.

Our lovely, romantic bedroom.

They also fed us like royalty!!!
(Note - white pudding as well as black - MMMMMM!)

The next morning, we were up and off early to make the most of the precious few winter hours of daylight. When we reached the Causeway car park, I noticed this lovely, well-preserved Georgian post box.

The National Trust have decided, in their wisdom, that the old information hut wasn't grand enough, so spent eight and a half MILLION pounds on this impressive new building. Does it need it? It’s a beautiful thing, no doubt about that, with the columnar design meant to mimic the basalt of the Causeway.

We wanted to visit the causeway at dawn for pictures, but were bemused by the fact that the centre was only open from 9 –5PM, BUT it said the causeway was open dawn until dusk. How could this be??? As, if you look at their web site, it seems like you have to go through the centre to access the causeway (at £8:50 EACH). Not so. The causeway is OPEN ACCESS at all times, but of course, they would rather you pay. They also have all the parking close by sewn up, so I felt like I was being bullied into parting with my cash.

(so I didn’t).

These are the columns through which you enter the centre. You can see the ticket machine on the right. You can't even get through the centre DOORS to ask a question without you pay your £8:50!!

The access tunnel has been ‘swallowed up’ at the side of the centre, but here it
is – just in case YOU want to go and visit without being fleeced!

After passing through the tunnel, you can walk down this road
to the causeway.

There is also a bus every 15 minutes, but we felt that the
walk heightened the anticipation of what was to come.

When you turn the corner at the bottom of the road, THIS is
what hits you!!

It really is amazing – and probably looks even better under
strong sunlight. We were lucky today, as at least it wasn't raining or cold, but
there was little direct sunlight.

There was a little action in the sea, just enough to add to the great experience.

Amazing to think all this is natural – it looks like something out of a film
set.

This is a shot I took off the web of the Northern lights over the
Causeway.

What we wouldn’t give to be here at a time like this.

These columns make for a great sea defense, seeming to have no noticeable erosion at all!

Sue absolutely LOVED it here, and she said it lived up to all her expectations over the years.

This huge lime kiln was unusual because it was a double one –
not as efficient as it was first thought, so it wasn’t used for very long.

A short walk (and another £11:20 – thanks National Trust) saw
us at the rope bridge, or rather, above it.

A zoomed shot of the front of the fishing boat on Carick-a-rede island.You can see why they took SO MUCH trouble to get a boat into the water here, as the salmon fishing was some of the best in Ireland. The area to the right of the bridge is, in fact, the bowl of an extinct volcano. Acting like a dish, it offered a haven from the strong currents to the migrating fish. When fishermen found out about this – the salmon's days were numbered!

The rope (or, wire as it is now) bridge has been a magnet for
visitors for years. The current one is very new. We were told it is guaranteed
unbreakable, and is replaced every one million visitors. We were also told we
were about 250,000th, so we were safe! Again, out of season, we were the only
two people to cross the bridge and walk on the island while we were there.

Sadly, the rest of the island was closed to us for ’conservation reasons’,
so we could only stay on the short path (no reduction in price, though) ;-)

Steep steps lead down to the bouncy bridge.

This would unsettle a lot of people, indeed some have been SO
frightened that they had to be recovered by boat from the island, refusing to
make the return trip over the bridge (wimps!).

No such worries for Sue and I – we LOVED it.

My; 'I'm a celebrity - get me out of here' pose

This was what the fishermen used to catch the salmon from. It was lowered into
the volcanic ‘bowl’ and it and the catch, often up to sixty TONS of salmon,
hoisted back up to the small hut nearby on the island to be processed by hand,
before being carried up the steep cliffs to local ice houses, then onward to
markets.

Sheep island.

As we walked back along the cliffs, this little stonechat kept us company.

‘Stackaboy island’ – you can just see a wall there. Dolorite
used to be mined in the area, and was transported to this little rock via a
pulley, winch and tub system stretching right across from here to there.

The tubs would hit the wall, and tip out the Dolorite, which
was then loaded onto boats. It was used to build a lot of the roads in Glasgow,
Dublin & elsewhere.

Sheep island

As an early evening began to fall, we drove back.

The skies were magical, and I couldn’t resist stopping the car
to take a few pictures of the ethereal scene.

So – an early end to the day – but what to do NOW???? Too early to
eat.

I suddenly remembered they did tours around the Bushmills
distillery. It was 3:10 – what time was the last tour, we wondered?